OKHA Studio’s new artisanal Magnifico coffee and side table
Adam Court, responsible for all furniture design by artisanal luxury brand OKHA, immediately fell in love with the “Verde Magnifico” marble when he saw it; the marbles visible layers of history speak to OKHA’s South African locality of cosmopolitan, polyglot and multi-cultural charm. Court conceived of Magnifico side and Magnifico coffee table together. A pair of hand-crafted tables, whose varying sizes and weights represent OKHA’s small artisanal position as well as its global expression; their irregular shape of perfect triangle and perfect square cut off at the edges are testament to the vast natural geologic surroundings of Cape Town and South Africa which inform OKHA’s design process and choice of materials.
Marble is a metamorphic rock; it forms the backbone of empire and artefacts, it is created when sedimentary limestone is compressed by movement of the earth’s crust; the intense heat and pressure causing the stone’s crystals to grow and interlock forging a new and denser type of stone, marble as we know it.
The Magnifico Coffee table’s Mars red “Flame Travertine” distinctly reveals the original sedimentary layers, most likely deposited by hot springs.
Made from the wood of the Larch tree, a conifer dominant in the boreal forests of Siberia and Canada, the table legs are over-scaled, intentionally exposed beyond the table top edge to produce the concept of weight pushing down in a playful over-exaggeration. The Brutalist cylindrical legs have been wire-brushed to remove the soft pulp and emphasise their graphic carbon stained detail.
The marble top of the Magnifico side table, from which Magnifico earns its name is evidence that marble can be forged beneath omnidirectional pressure; the interlacing threads of lighter and darker greens in its polished surface swirl organically, the original direction of their sediment shrouded in mystery.
The Flame Red Travertine top of the Magnifico coffee table straddles the muscular Larch timber legs, effecting a beautifully bizarre and primitive cosmic landing pad.
The shape of the side table brings to mind ancient symbolism and ritual, the materials and forms both speak of ancient cultures and other worlds.
– CREDITS –
Product Name: Magnifico coffee table – Magnifico side table Brand: OKHA Designer: Adam Court Photography: Niel Vosloo Words: Tara Asia Meeran
– STORES –
OKHA Gallery:
109 Hatfield Street
info@okha.com
+27 (0)21 461 7233
www.okha.com
Gardens
Cape Town
South Africa
OKHA London stockist:
Staffan Tollgard Design Store
info@tollgard.com
+44 (0) 2079526070
Grosvenor
Waterside
Gatliff Road, SW1W 8QN
London
